I'm a Games sceptic who's never seen the point in carping about them. That, I think, makes me a pragmatic optimistic - and one who can't help by feel stirred by the ambition of the project every time he makes the short journey from his home to the Olympic Park. That said, if the "regeneration games" turn out to be no such thing, then for me the entire enterprise will have failed.

No amount of gold medals will compensate for a longer-term failure to improve East Londoners' quality of life and help alleviate housing problems. Some recent developments suggest a growing anxiety about delivering this social and economic legacy. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. But I make no apology for reproducing a chunk of a recent piece by Richard Garlick of Regeneration and Renewal:

We have never doubted that those involved in delivering the Games want to see them generate a social, economic and environmental legacy in east London and the rest of the country. But our concern was that other factors would assume even greater importance in the organisers' list of priorities.

Disappointingly, these fears have often seemed well-grounded over the past few years. The timetable for crucial decisions about the legacy of the Games has constantly been put back. As [Margaret] Ford battles to get into a position where she can resolve the legacy use of the stadium, it is sobering to recall that one of the original planning conditions for the Olympic Park was that ground should not be broken until legacy uses had been agreed. Subsequent changes to the Games planning application mean that the condition no longer applies, but it shows how far the original vision of an Olympics development built to fit in with the legacy plan, rather than vice-versa, has slipped.

Progress on the agreement of performance indicators to measure the Games' effectiveness in delivering regeneration has also been depressingly slow. In 2006, when we began the campaign, the Government said they would appear "within months". In fact, it was only last year that a comprehensive list of government-backed indicators appeared, enshrining the so-called "convergence" concept that the Games should mean that living conditions for residents of the five host boroughs should be brought into line with the London average by 2030.

By then, of course, the vast majority of the Olympics construction budget had been allocated, if not already spent. That is not to underestimate the value of the targets and the convergence concept, which has been built into London mayor Boris Johnson's economic strategy and draft London Plan, as well as informing central government and host borough policies. But they will need plenty of political support to have any impact.

Read the whole thing. "R&R" is trying to inject fresh momentum into its Fair Games campaign. Add your support by emailing richard.garlick@haymarket.com.